This morning I awoke to see that the weather forecast for today was perfectly correct and I congratulated myself upon having the foresight to do all the baking yesterday. I was still feeling rather smug when I drank the coffee brought to me by my son, this is the life I thought. Then I remembered that I had not been clever enough to also do the ironing and there was a sudden evaporation of my self satisfaction, pride does indeed go before a fall.
After a second cup of coffee I went down stairs to breakfast also kindly made by my son, this has become a tradition the past year or so and it is perfectly lovely to have a meal prepared for me. Today we had hot buttered crumpets and muffins spread with our own strawberry jam and a pot of English breakfast tea.
After breakfast we went our separate ways, I to the garden centre, my son to his Sunday role playing game and Pa to the sofa for a little nap, he had not slept well during the night and when this occurs a nap after breakfast often helps. There were lots of people about dressed in bright summer clothes out to enjoy their Sunday by the river or in the park. At the garden centre I bought a flat terra cotta pot to replace a broken one, some of our pots are rather elderly and it is sad to lose such old friends.
On my return I decided to tackle the ironing and this proved to be a sensible move as during the afternoon it became to hot to do much except laze about with a cold drink to hand. A couple of Christmases ago I was given by my son a beautiful illustrated copy of “The Wind In The Willows” and armed with this, a rug and a jug of iced water flavoured with raspberry juice I repaired to the swing seat at the bottom of the garden to spend the rest of the afternoon in the best way possible reading about the adventures of Ratty, Mole and Badger along their own beloved riverbank.
Alight breeze ruffled the leaves gently and in the apple tree a collared dove cooed gently, the effect was so soporific that I fell asleep for a short time. It is seldom that I have the time to sit in my garden in spite of the fact that there are seats everywhere, today I enjoyed my handiwork from the perspective of a visitor and found it vastly satisfying. The cat Twiggy wandered between sunshine and shade and eventually retired to one of her tree houses to sleep in the shade for most of the afternoon, to hot and sleep even to ask for her daily fix of cat nip!
As I sat all the lazy sounds of summer drifted around me, the distant clatter of a lawn mower mixing with the sound of happy children playing ball in the fields opposite, the buzz and hum of millions of insects could be heard in the intervals between aeroplanes heading for Heathrow, I drank my raspberry cordial and was thankful for the blessing of an hours peace and quiet.
Dinner this evening was a simply home mead pizza covered with mozzarella cheese fresh and sun-dried tomatoes , ham anchovies and olives served with a plentiful salad from the garden and followed by the remaining orange and lavender cakes, a prefect dinner for a hot summer evening.
I had placed some beer in the refrigerator to chill and this too was a welcome addition to our simple meal.
We hurried through our evening chores as fast as possible, the new season of “Top Gear” begins tonight and we all love the show and usually watch it together. My son returns to work tomorrow and with all that is going on there at the moment he would I think prefer to be going to hell for a week. He loves his job but in my humble opinion there are times where higher management take unpardonable liberties with his good nature. I wish that I could warn them to have a care and not push him too far, he is a patient man but he has unfortunately inherited his mothers temper, think Krakatoa and you will know what I mean. I have cleared a room with my temper in the past and my son is even more imposing in anger.
Niether of us have ever used physical violence to make a point but people have often remarked that they would have preferred a punch on the nose to the devastating verbal onslaught which can be the result of our pent up rage. I pity with all my heart the poor bugger who gets on my sons wrong side for any reason during the next few weeks!
I am sorry to see the end of our holiday week, it has been fun and we are all much happier when we spend time together, as a family we are very strong and we love each other very much. The happiness this closeness brings is my most treasured gift and I would not trade places with any one in exchange for what we have as a family, no not even on a bad day. We are there for each other no matter what and it is this which makes us strong, trust, faith and above all love are the most priceless gifts of all, nothing else is worth a damn.
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